


good-bi heterosexuality

by wildjules



Category: Riverdale (TV 2017)
Genre: @ras give toni and archie the friendship they Deserve, Bisexual Character, Bisexual Male Character, F/M, M/M, Multi, archie’s bi awakening, me posting this two weeks late? it’s more likely than you think, post 3x05
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-02
Updated: 2018-12-02
Packaged: 2019-09-05 12:05:58
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 935
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16810252
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/wildjules/pseuds/wildjules
Summary: “he just kisses him then shivs him and archie has this moment of gay awakening before PAIN”- loonierlovegood





	good-bi heterosexuality

**Author's Note:**

> uwu ik that this episode came out like. two weeks ago but whatever. anyways shoutout to star loonierlovegood for this idea and reading over it for me! i haven’t rlly beta read it tho so any mistakes are mine!

it had been before his final fight. joaquin had been wrapping his hands, helping him prepare for the fight. and something in archie had urged him to tell joaquin about his escape plan. so he did. he didn’t give him all the details, of course (archie was trusting, yeah, but joaquin was a gang member), but he made sure to reassure the serpent that he’d be back for him. 

and then joaquin’s eyes were looking at his lips. and archie has about a second to prepare. and then joaquin’s lips were on his. and okay, that was… something. archie pushed joaquin away, all of the thoughts running through his head (the most pressing of which was the fact that he didn’t hate the kiss) too much to process while the serpents lips were still on his. so instead of even trying to figure out what those feelings meant, he pushed out a “what are you doing?”.

“the warden said if i did this then i would ascend.” and joaquin’s answer didn’t help him clarify anything. archie had a second to gather his thoughts (holy shit, was he bi?) and then joaquin was plunging a knife into his abdomen. and that gave archie a whole new set of problems to worry about. 

archie stepped away from joaquin, his thoughts a stream of various forms of “what the fuck”. and not long enough after that, someone was grabbing him, taking him to the arena to fight which- fuck. archie was going to have to fight someone with a fucking stab wound. and something about how the warden described the fight told him this opponent wouldn’t be easy to beat. at all.

archie’s suspicions were confirmed when he stepped into the fighting ring and saw mad dog. and that would only end one way for archie- terrible. archie took the few seconds he had before the fight to weigh himself against mad dog. mad dog was buff (had he always had those washboard abs or was that a new development) and obviously worked up about something. archie was weak (in comparison) and also suffering from a bad case of being stabbed. 

so instead of trying to fight mad dog, archie tried to convince the fighter to escape with him (and he tried not to think too deeply into why he wanted mad dog to come with him). but mad dog refused, instead telling archie that he would hold off the guards for archie. and then veronica (shit, how would he explain this all to her?) and reggie and josie and kevin were setting off their distraction and archie had to go. 

——-

it wasn’t till much later, when archie was safe and patched up in the bunker, that archie was able to dissect his feelings about the kiss with joaquin. and the resulting realizations from it. 

toni was watching guard over him, apparently the only one who wouldn’t be missed at home (and wasn’t that sad?). they had never spoken, but archie wasn’t sure if there was anyone (else) better to ask for help with this. so in the dark of dilton doileys bunker, archie reached out to toni.

“hey, toni? can i ask for your advice?” he asked into the darkness, surprising even himself with the ease of it. 

“yeah, of course, what is it?” she replied, surprisingly calm despite the fact that he had once pointed a gun at one of her friends (and he was an escaped convicted murderer).

“how did you-“ here it was, the moment of truth. “how did you know you were bi?” the question hung in the stale air for almost a minute, both parties aware of the implication of the question.

“i just- i liked girls and i liked boys, plain and simple as that. i never realized that it was different for other people until one of my then-friends looked at me funny for saying that a girl was hot.”

archie sat, absorbing that for a second. he thought back over the days events (was that all really today?) and how he had felt about the kiss and about seeing mad dog again. and everything refocused itself in archie’s mind. the odd pit of jealousy he felt in stomach looking at betty and jughead (despite being over betty), the way his heart sunk just a little when jughead called him his best friend. 

“holy shit. i think i’m bi,” archie said into the darkness, half forgetting that toni was there with him until she sat on the foot of the bed.

“you know, i’m really proud of you for realizing that. not to sound like your mother or anything, but…” toni trailed off. 

archie sat up straight, ignoring the sharp pain in his side. “can i hug you?” he asked toni, already leaning forward. she met him halfway, and they stayed like that for a little. they eventually pulled back, and toni began to speak again.

“are you gonna tell veronica? i can tell that you two care about each other a lot but…”

“i- yeah? i think it’s important but- i love her toni. and i don’t want to lose her.” it felt… odd, laying himself bare like this. but good-odd.

“if you guys are meant to be together, you won’t lose her. and i think you two are meant to be together,” toni, always a calming figure, responded. 

archie hummed in response, laying back down to try and get to sleep. it was a few minutes before he broke the silence with “thank you toni. this was really helpful.” 

he almost missed her quiet “of course, we’re friends”.


End file.
